THE VERDICT ON BEER COCKTAILS? `GIMME A BUD`

It`s not exactly egg in your beer, but a Japanese brewing company is putting other things in there, dressing the familiar brew in different colors and flavors.

Beer cocktails--something new in Japan--are being sold by Suntory Co., one of the most aggressive beer and whiskey marketing powers in Japan.

Although not generally available throughout Japan, the beer cocktails are being sold at a bar the company owns in a fashionable area near expensive hotels and private clubs. Waiters wearing pink shirts and black bow ties serve up 10 different drinks each costing about $2.

There`s also Caribbean Night (beer and coffee), South Wind (beer and melon) and Campari Beer (beer and Campari).

At the same bar, regular Suntory draft beer costs about $1.40, and Budweiser draft beer costs about $1.75.

Judging from the reaction of bar customers, people would just as soon not pay the extra money for a different flavor or color.

Fumiko Takagi and her friend, Ryoko Takahashi, laughed when they read the menu descriptions of the new cocktails.

But Takagi ordered Mint Beer anyway, just to see whether the new flavor struck her fancy. It didn`t. She sipped the green beer, winced and offered a taste to her friend. Her friend winced, too. They sent the cocktail back and ordered a regular beer instead.

''Bad taste,'' explained Takagi, 21.

''It was like toothpaste,'' said Takahashi, 23.

Would Takagi order the green beer again?

''No, no, no, no, no!'' she said.

A 23-year-old American now studying in Japan tried the Blue Horizon

(beer, lemon, blue coloring and other ingredients) and had a more terse comment.